Textual Disasters

Culture

Texts from grandparents read all sorts of ways, which makes them so much more entertaining to receive than a blip from your parents or friends. When it comes to grandparents texting, all the rules of text messages typically get&nbsp;ignored, usually because your old folks have better things to worry about than the concept of waiting five minutes to reply because you don't want to appear desperate. The older you get, the less time you have, and the less you want to waste. Because of this, some of your grandparents' text messages read so humorously and concisely, that a 21st century technology presented with elderly wit hardly knows what to do with them. <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/texts-from-grandma/ashley-reign" target="_blank">Texts from grandma</a>, who probably just wants to make sure you have enough to eat, are another of life's little joys, one that can be interpreted in so many ways depending on their familiarity with a touchscreen keyboard.Of course, funny texts from grandpa occasionally&nbsp;do come from a slip of the thumb or a misunderstand of how the iPhone mic works. But as the grandparents texting below reveal, most of your&nbsp;elders deserve the utmost respect for their text savvy and aged humor; it's as&nbsp;if&nbsp;they knew you would post the screenshots&nbsp;to Tumblr&nbsp;later.&nbsp;

Hilarious Texts From Grandparents That Made Us Die Laughing

General

Hilarious Texts From Grandparents

Mick Jacobs

Funny pics, puns, and art from Snapchat, Instagram, and even your own inbox.

Fun with Phones

artificial intelligence

Whether you're an iPhone user or not, you've no doubt heard of Siri, the voice-activated virtual assistant who has been taking the world by storm ever since her debut in 2010. Despite the fact that she was created to be a helpful assistant, many people use her to ask silly questions about life, the universe, and everything.&nbsp;Here, you’ll find an in-depth collection of funny things to ask <a href="http://www.bestaiassistant.com/siri/hi-siri-hey-siri-talk-siri/" target="_blank">Siri</a> with answers that are guaranteed to make you grin. You’ll get a behind-the-scenes look as she opens up via funny Siri answers concerning her views on everything - from politics, to romance, to the meaning of life.&nbsp;If you've ever found yourself wondering, &quot;What should I ask Siri today?&quot; this list will definitely be able to answer your most burning Siri questions. Vote up the funniest questions to ask Siri below, and be sure to let us know what you think in the comment section.&nbsp;

23 Times Siri Gave Hilarious Answers to Your Questions

Funny Siri Answers: Ask Siri Questions for a Laugh

Ashley Reign

Entertainment

In real life, &quot;hacking&quot; is a technical pursuit that usually requires a boring, drawn-out, entirely unromantic slog. But <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/fictional-hackers/jacob-shelton" target="_blank">fictional movie hackers</a> are rockstar cyber-magicians who, through inhumanly frantic typing, visually overwhelming screen activity, and half-explained tech jargon sneered out loud in real time, can crack the world&#39;s most complicated computer codes in seconds.

While some movies depict hacking as some process of uploading, downloading, or password entry that doesn&#39;t actually qualify as hacking, other movies envision hacking as a dramatic, entertaining, and streamlined enterprise. Real hacking, though, is grueling and cumbersome. Screen activity is minimal, and hackers are likely to spend hours working on the same line of code. This won&#39;t do for Hollywood, of course.

From &#39;80s computer-phobia, to the &#39;90s tech-movie gold rush, to more modern examples of &quot;tech nonsense... on FLATSCREENS,&quot; here are some of the most ludicrous hacking scenes in movie history, running the gamut from &quot;technically semi-accurate but goofy&quot; to &quot;nothing that&#39;s happening here is anything.&quot;

The Most Ridiculous Movie Hacking Scenes, Ranked By Silliness

Film

Megan Summers

Internet

This list of the top tech blogs on the Internet, is based on traffic as well as influence over the subject online, and has been voted on by the Ranker community and tech nerds alike. Tech bloggers have been discussing technology news in detail online for years, and these blogs and websites are where much of the online conversation is centered. Because of the ease of editing and updating blogs quickly as news happens, many of these blogs and websites are able to break news that traditional media organizations haven't covered yet. However, many popular tech blogs, like Gizmodo and Tech Crunch, use their platforms to explore tech news in a more in-depth and nuanced fashion, posting longer pieces and competing with niche magazines and newspapers to provide a diverse collection of original writing and reporting on the subject.In the early days of blogging, users would traditionally find blogs about technology news and related subjects using blog search engines, including Technorati, Icerocket, Google Blog Search and others. Since the explosion of social media services such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ and others, search has become less and less significant as a traffic draw. Now, getting a particular blog post or article to go &quot;viral&quot; on Facebook will have far greater significance than optimizing visibility in search engines. Add in the volume of links submitted to aggregation sites and services like Reddit and StumbleUpon, and it's easier than ever to find good tech blogs and blog posts on any imaginable topic, no matter how niche, including the great posts and tech news coverage from these best technology blogs.These top 10 tech blogs are focused on issues in the technology news community. Be sure to vote for your favorites to move them up the list.

Mashable

The Best Tech Blogs

Website

Best Tech Blogs | List of the Top Technology Blogs Online

Ranker Community

What did we think the future would look like? How has it really turned out? What's next for humanity and the universe? What have we done? Lists to keep you up at night, quaking in your moon boots.

The Future Has Arrived

Technology hurtles forward at a startling pace. If you’ve ever heard someone complain that they just replaced their cell phone only to discover that a new model came out the day after, you know the frustration and often confusion that accompanies rapid technological progress. One fairly recent trend in consumer technology is smart home systems. These devices can dim your lights, adjust your thermostat, and even play any song imaginable with simple vocal commands. As such gadgets become more common, so do weird smart home stories that will leave you wondering if you&nbsp;really&nbsp;want to bring such a device into your abode.&nbsp;One of the most popular home systems&nbsp;is the Amazon Echo. Echo's AI assistant,&nbsp;Alexa, is well-known for her intuitive but often odd behavior. Creepy Alexa stories have become a staple of <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/tags/social-media?ref=internalCrossLinking_tag">social media</a>. While many customers rave about the convenience of having Alexa in their house, some have stories detailing her more eccentric moments that range from light and humorous to utterly chilling. Alexas have done some questionable things, but they're far from the only <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/scary-new-technologies/eric-vega" target="_blank">scary smart home tech</a> out there. From hack-able baby monitors to devices that record you at random, you'll find some <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/creepy-true-stories-from-the-world/rosa-pasquarella?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">true horror stories</a> below.&nbsp;Whether or not you own one of these devices, these tales will give you pause before you blindly plug yourself into the expansive Internet of things.

The Creepiest Things That People's Smart Home Systems and Alexas Have Ever Done

Sarah Blumert

Tech

Technology is advancing at an ever quickening pace, and <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/cool-new-tech-2018/eric-vega&nbsp;" target="_blank">new breakthroughs</a> are often feared as much as they are celebrated. The headlines are full of stories about terrifying new tech being used for nefarious purposes -&nbsp;and that trend doesn't look like it's reversing anytime soon. While scientific progress should always be applauded, it is important to keep an eye on emerging technologies and monitor how they are used. Technology can just as easily be pointed in a regressive direction as a progressive one, and the scariest technology can easily abused in an incredibly dangerous fashion.&nbsp;There are a lot of scary current technologies that are affecting our day to day lives, and some are becoming potential national security threats. We are still struggling to navigate&nbsp;this new digital future, and learning how to live with certain technologies previously unimaginable. Social media, advanced robotics, and <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/weird-virtual-reality-uses/jason-robbins" target="_blank">virtual reality</a>&nbsp;are simultaneously being used for good and evil, and the stakes have never been higher. If humanity is to survive our technological revolution, we better keep an eye on how these terrifying technologies are used.

The Scariest Current Technologies

The 15+ Scariest Current Technologies That Should Worry Us

Eric Luis

Nostalgia

As the new millennium approached, a thing generally referred to as the &quot;Y2K bug&quot; or &quot;Y2K glitch&quot;&nbsp;raised fears of a catastrophic collapse of computer systems all over the world that might cripple governments, financial organizations, and businesses large and small. The alarm was based on the idea that many computer systems were designed to recognize dates by its last two digits - 1999 being recognized by &quot;99,&quot;&nbsp;for example. The thought was that these systems would be unable to correctly recognize &quot;00&quot;&nbsp;as being the year 2000 when the date changed over on New Year&#39;s Day. In order to try and avert this catastrophe, billions of dollars were spent (around $100 billion in the US&nbsp;alone) to try and make computer systems Y2K compliant.

Years later, we recognize&nbsp;the threat of Y2K causing some sort of <a href="/list/times-the-world-almost-got-destroyed/mel-judson" target="_blank">apocalyptic event</a> was way overblown. There were hundreds of Y2K glitches caused by computer system failures. But while some -&nbsp;such as pregnant women being given incorrect test results -&nbsp;were of a serious and/or long-lasting nature, the majority of the glitches were resolved quickly.

Actual Y2K Glitches

TGWrites

Lists about the best (and worst) films, TV series, novels, characters, etc. in every sci-fi genre.

The Worlds of Science Fiction

Sci-Fi

Flying cars. Battling robots. Holograms and virtual reality. These are all devices that might have started out as pieces of sci-fi technology, but over time, these seemingly wacky ideas have turned into reality.

There&#39;s some sci-fi tech from movies and TV we <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/scifi-tech-from-tv-and-movies-we-most-wish-was-real/analise.dubner" target="_blank">wish were real</a>, but there are other sci-fi inventions that are best left to the screen. Sure, some of these sci-fi technology ideas sound good in theory - who wouldn&#39;t want a self-drying coat like in Back to the Future Part II&nbsp;or extra storage in their brain like in&nbsp;Johnny Mnemonic? But if you really think about these sci-fi gadgets, they are impractical, dangerous, or plain unnecessary.&nbsp;

The Dumbest Technology In Science Fiction

The Dumbest Science Fiction Technology, Ranked By Fans

Maggie Clancy

History

Technology has given us everything from smart TVs that can hear you talking to self-driving cars, but before we became the digitally-driven society we are today, fear of new technology commonly served as one of the greatest threats to innovation. What we see as dated and relatively harmless inventions of the past were once the new technology that people freaked out about. Without an efficient way to educate the masses about the latest, hottest new inventions of their era, paranoia and confusion quickly took the place of logic and curiosity for many consumers. While many of these inventions are now seen as revolutionary and their modern counterparts are a part of our daily lives, there was once a time when these gadgets were some of the most frightening topics of discussion.

9 Times in History When Everyone Freaked Out About New Technology

Taylor Danielle

Since the dawn of civilization, a lot of important things have happened. Here are lists of about the many winding routes we took to get where we are today.

Historical Contexts

Interesting

The outlandish ideas of one era can eventually become predictions that come true at a later date. Something that&nbsp;was seen as unfathomable, implausible, or even ludicrous at one point&nbsp;can end&nbsp;up&nbsp;as a&nbsp;part of everyday&nbsp;life over the years. Inventors, scientists, and writers of yesterday <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/futurama-jokes-that-came-true/aaron-edwards?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword" target="_blank">have weirdly predicted things</a> that people laughed at in their time - only for their predictions to become standard, if not indispensable, for later generations.

History has a funny way of proving the most practical of humans wrong and those deemed as lunatics&nbsp;right. The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/proof-earth-is-round/laura-allan" target="_blank">thought of a spherical Earth</a> must have <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/crazy-flat-earther-beliefs-theories-why-they-believe/jeffrichard" target="_blank">made the&nbsp;flat-Earthers</a>&nbsp;laugh when the ancient Egyptians and Greeks proposed it.&nbsp;The limits of logic are far more rigid than those of the imagination.&nbsp;Everything from organ transplants to Wi-Fi were once considered eccentric ideas that turned into an impressive historical prediction.

It took individuals bold enough to look crazy in their own time for us to enjoy innovative things in&nbsp;ours.&nbsp;

The Weirdest Ideas In History That Somehow Came True

Jesse Childs

Billionaire philanthropist playboy by day. Dark knight by night. Honoring his parents by cleaning up Gotham 24/7/365.

All Things The Batman

Gadgets

&quot;Where does he get all those wonderful toys?&quot; (Joker,&nbsp;Batman.)&nbsp; &nbsp; When you're an average, every day, non-super-powered human being, you need all the help you can get to fight crime. So what is a billionaire with his mind set on vengeance to do? Invent all best ass-kickery to take out <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/ranker-film?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">the bad guys</a>. Whether it's specific to the foe (I've got to think the Bat-Heater comes out mainly when Mr. Freeze is in town), or a broader use tool like the batarang, all of these devices have their merits.We've decided to rank the best Bat-Gadgets of all time found in Batman comics, movies, animated shows, and video games. Be sure to vote up your favorites!

All Batman's Gadgets, Ranked (By You)

Best Batman Gadgets | Batman's Gear

Ranker Comics

Fails

Our fearless tech support people give our computers the tender loving care that we are too lazy to give them ourselves. The subreddit r/<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupportgore" target="_blank">techsupportgore</a> has the toughest cases that IT departments have ever had to face and we feel their pain.

People In Tech Support Are Sharing Photos Of Hardware Disasters And We Can't Look Away

Mark Rennie

Home and Appliance Brands

Lists about all the fun things happening in the kitchen.

What's Cooking, Good Looking?

Appliances

List of small <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/large-kitchen-appliance-brands/werner-brandes?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">kitchen appliance brands</a> that include the most reliable models available. Small kitchen appliance brands include those from major manufacturers of home appliances, including GE, Sharp, Samsung and more. This list answers the question, &#39;What are the best small kitchen appliance brands?&#39; Users looking for a new small kitchen appliance will want to research a variety of different brands to find the one that best suits their cooking needs, based on function and features. 
 
Small kitchen appliances vary by type. Some are designed to go over a range cook top, while others are counter top models that can be a tight fit in a crowded kitchen with little counter space available. Most of the major small <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/american-residential-warranty-review/bradsmith" target="_blank">kitchen appliance</a> brands are available in a variety of different styles, each designed to best suit a customers&#39; specific cooking needs. Ease and convenience are certainly big factors to consider when choosing a new small kitchen appliance. 
 
Small kitchen appliance brands offer varying degrees of cooking power, as well. Some models can cook food lightning fast, using higher wattage to get the job done. Others might take a bit longer, but they also work well. What is the best small kitchen appliance brand? That&#39;s subjective, and often based on a consumer&#39;s past experiences with a specific brand. This list includes a vast majority of the most recognizable small kitchen appliance brand names that are currently on the market. 
 
From built-in small kitchen appliance model brands to over the range and counter top models, this list includes those small kitchen appliance brands that consumers might wish to learn more about, including full sized small kitchen appliance brands and more compact models.

Whirlpool Corporation

The Best Small Kitchen Appliance Brands

Company

Best Small Kitchen Appliance Brands | List of Small Kitchen Appliance Brands

Werner Brandes

One of the best things about living in the 21st century is learning just how realistic some of the sci-fi devices of decades past actually were. There was once a time when gadgets like teleporters, hoverboards, and holographic companions seemed like they would forever remain in the realm of the make-believe - but they&rsquo;re already becoming more feasible by the day in the modern era, and some have already arrived outright.

Countless individuals have dreamed about <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/fictional-technologies-you-wish-existed/sarah-blumert" target="_blank">getting their hands on some futuristic piece of tech</a> like a lightsaber or an invisibility cloak, and they might be getting their wish a lot sooner than anyone would have expected. Is the world ready for what happens when science fiction becomes science fact?

Sci-Fi Tech From Movies And TV Subjected To Scientific Scrutiny

The Most Scientifically Accurate Sci-Fi Technology In Movies And TV

Stephan Roget

Smartphones

The most indispensable mobile apps are those that, for whatever reason, people just can't seem to function without. These are the apps that are used on a daily basis, allowing smartphone or tablet owners to perform important tasks. From Gmail, to Evernote, to Dropbox, the mobile apps listed here are considered by many to be so important, they're virtually essential. Be sure to vote for the most indispensable mobile apps that you believe are the best, and vote down any apps that don't seem all that necessary. Also, you can add your own most needed mobile apps to the list.How did we ever function without mobile apps? From being able to communicate instantly with anyone around the globe to paying for our coffee, apps have become such a key part of our lives that it's almost difficult to remember what life was like without them. The best mobile apps can increase productivity, help us store media and save a ton of time. They can wake us up, put us to sleep and allow us to catch up with our (essential) TV viewing. There's an app for everything, it seems. And also that's why some are must-have apps and some are better left alone.With thousands of mobile apps available, many have become so indispensable that we can't go one day without using them for something. That's what this list is all about, so start voting. And, if you're interested, check out this list of the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/most-indispensable-android-apps/dot-commander">best Android apps</a>, too. Just a word of caution about these must-have apps however--not all of them may be available for your chosen mobile operating system.&nbsp;

Google Maps

The Top Must-Have Indispensable Mobile Apps

The Top 100+ Most Indispensable and Best Mobile Apps of All-Time

Dot Commander

Get a Job! 

Lists about the robots, androids, cyborgs, and artificial intelligence that will soon rise up against humanity and take charge of the universe. Will you welcome them?

Our Robot Overlords

Living

We all know the economy's been taking a few gut-punches in recent years, and stories about &quot;job creation&quot; have become a staple in the news. Complicating the generally crap availability of worthwhile employment opportunities, a flood of advances in artificial intelligence and cheap robotics technology have provoked some rather scary conversations lately about the possibility of almost all routinized labor being replaced within the next 20 to 30 years by computerized and automated workers. Which jobs and careers are robots poised to take from us mere mortals in the not so distant future?This scenario obviously has its pros and cons, but what we all want to know most urgently is, of course, &quot;Will my own job be replaced by a robot some day soon?&quot; Good question. Which jobs are most likely to be taken over by robots? Which jobs are the most secure from robot infiltration? Will service robots eventually, creepily outnumber actual human citizens? Scroll down to discover the answers to these questions and cast your votes for the jobs you think will disappear thanks to advances in technology. (I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.)

Jobs Robots Are Most Likely To Take Over In The Future

Devon Ashby

Technology lists at Ranker provide the best rankings of tech brands, companies, interesting gadgets, and cool gizmos voted on by 1000s of tech fans.

Technology lists on Ranker

Best Rankings of Tech Brands, Companies, Interesting Gadgets, and Cool Gizmos

Gmail

Google Chrome

Pandora

RetailMeNot

Couponsurfer.com

Groupon

YouTube

Netflix

Ranker

What are the best websites to waste your time on? Let's face it, the more advanced we become, technologically, the less productive we seem to become. It's all too easy to get sucked into a website and wind up with hours of your life missing. That's what this list is about: The websites listed here make it super easy to waste time in a really entertaining way. These are the best time wasting websites.From reading <a href="/list/interesting-facts-blogs/blog-loblaw" target="_blank">interesting facts blogs</a> to catching up with friends on the <a href="/list/social-networking-sites/sirsinister" target="_blank">best social networking sites</a>, we proudly waste our time on these sites. Feel free to rerank this list in any order you want, with any additions you want! Some of the websites listed here frequently top lists of the <a href="/list/best-overall-websites-of-2012/dot-commander" target="_blank">best overall websites</a> for various years. They are notorious time suckers, but we love them no matter what. Need proof? What, exactly, are you doing right this moment? You are spending some time thinking about ranking and re-ranking an awesome list on... Ranker. It's an excellent way to spend your valuable time.And after you're done with this list, you're totally going to check out this list of <a href="/list/20-pictures-that-prove-you-have-a-dirty-mind/greg" target="_blank">20 pictures that prove you have a dirty mind</a>. And so on, and so on...

Hulu

The Best Websites to Waste Your Time On

Time Wasting Websites: List of the Best Sites for Procrastination

The best coupons can be hard to find. This list of the best coupon sites is ranked by savvy shoppers worldwide, making it a trustworthy way to find online deals for all your shopping needs. Vote on your favorite places to find the best coupons online, or add your own list of best coupon sites. Either way, you'll be getting major rebates in the good karma department!

The Best Coupon Websites

The Best Online Coupon Websites Ranked By Savvy Shoppers 

The most essential software/apps, ranked by the wisdom of the crowd. Anyone can add their favorite software and apps to this list, making it an accurate, real-time ranking of the best software, as picked by the people who use these applications every day. Add your two cents, share your software expertise, and see how your app addictions stack up against everyone else's.